Puzzle Game Customisable Context menus

raxter

<font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">Hi all,</font><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">I'm wanting some design help here, if </font><font size="2" face="Arial">not</font><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"> for my game, just for the general knowledge. I'll outline what I'm wanting and if anyone has any suggestions or references to games that have solved this problem before I'd appreciate it. I'll obviously jump in and just try stuff out myself but I ask just in case someone has encountered this problem before. Context menus are common in many games, afterall. I hope this is not a too pedantic and too small a question to ask here.... on reflection it is a pretty big post for such a small question :/ </font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">Keep in mind that I don't really want answers, just to see if anyone has seen this sort of problem before and knows a good reference for me to look-at/research ^_^</font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">So here is my level, with badly drawn icon (in paint!) on the platform, indicating that it can go up and down. Indeed dragging on it will cause it to raise/lower</font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><img src="http://www.makegamessa.com/uploads/FileUpload/aa/6073628dbacbded445220b9d0a2712.png"><div><font face="Arial" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">Right clicking will open up a context menu with the default action at the top (move up/down) as well as some other options, in this case to move it left/right, or delete it (and my paint skills are again demonstrated)...</font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2"><br></font></div><img src="http://www.makegamessa.com/uploads/FileUpload/2b/8e644a57774e5f1d385e59996fe402.png"><div><br></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">Upon clicking and holding down the left/right icon the mouse will cause the platform to move left/right. All good. However say I want to make that left/right action the default action, instead of up/down being default, like so (the paint skills are just too much for some people, I understand)</font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2"><br></font></div><img src="http://www.makegamessa.com/uploads/FileUpload/fd/38d1b98e05d75a2ea73e5f8aa4d4d5.png"><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small; "><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small; ">Notice that the default action is now left/right</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small; "><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small; ">The problem here is, how do I let the user do this? It is not a common thing that they'll be doing, but changing the default action needs to be there (just, lets assume it does anyway). Left-click drag is already used to do the action, left click, makes no sense. This leaves 3 options in my mind</span></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">1) Right click/right click drag (I fear this might be confusing), or double left click perhaps?</font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">2) An icon or mini icon inside the icon that'll make it default (don't want user accidentally clicking that though)</font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">3) Pressing a keyboard button - can have text hover next to the menu saying "press z to make default" (this wouldn't work on a tablet)</font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">Of course I'll never know until I set it up and playtest, and all discussions around that will probably mean nothing until I have a working version. My question is if anyone has seen this sort of problem, or a similar one, solved in other games for me to have a look at.</font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">Thank ye all</font></div>

dislekcia

Is there any reason the player can't just resize it using the correct mechanism depending on where they clicked on the object itself? Corner boxes = vertical and horizontal, top and bottom areas = vertical only, left and right = horizontal only.<br><br>You could also make the selection be a state machine: Click the object and the editing type pops up, click the popup icons to toggle those movements as either on or off. The state is preserved after closing the box, so what was on before stays on...<br><br>Personally, I prefer having a smarter context-sensitive editing mode ;)<br>

skinklizzard

in your current example when limited to 2 possible default actions, left click can make sense,<br>especially if the action is on left drag.<br>A single click then becomes a direction toggle while drag moves the platform.<br>if its designed for touch devices then even with full context menu on tap it can still work, so short single tap opens menu, tap and hold+drag does whatever movement you're looking for (either the first default or whatever was last picked from the menu).<br><br>as far as I know most games either have you always using the context menu or assign default to the last option used (can't think of any that explicitly make you set the default action )<br>

raxter

<font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">Thanks for the replies :)</font><br><br><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">Oops, it would have been worth mentioning that this will most likely be a toolbox type of game. Not only can the platform move left/right up/down, it'll also be able to get wider/narrower and some of the controllable terrain will be able to, for instance, do more/less damage per second. So multiple options (like 2-5) Thing is I'm expecting that the user will only need to focus on one action at a time (big assumption, I know), hence the menus. I didn't want a last-option-becomes-default since I'm expecting (*ding* assumption) one of the actions to be default - since the user will be focusing on one aspect (of his/her choice) at a time - with ability to sparingly use the other options.</font><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">Suppose I could have UI of some sort but I am already creating to many possibilities now :p ... methinks to the prototypes! (with a brief detour to the drawing board)<br><br>I'll definitely be taking the context sensitivity (albeit it might not be fully sensitive, maybe just to a few of the controls) and tap/hold+drag ideas with me ^_^</font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">shot</font></div>